Marketing
3 ways you can build a website for your financial advice firm.
Starting your own firm is one of the biggest decisions you will make in your career. You have done the hard work of breaking away, and now your website needs to do some of the heavy lifting. Introducing you to prospective clients, reassuring your existing ones, and telling people who you are and what you stand for. It needs to reflect your brand, be easy to navigate, cover the essentials, and not cost a fortune to run.
The problem is that "just build a website" is easier said than done. The options are overwhelming, and most of the advice out there is not written for financial advisers. This guide covers the three realistic routes available to you, honestly.
Option 1: Let AI build it
You have probably already asked yourself whether you can just get Claude or ChatGPT to build your website. The answer is yes, but it comes with caveats worth knowing before you commit.
Here is how it works. You write a prompt along the lines of "build me a website with the following pages..." and outline what you need: your services, your regulatory information, your contact details. You can upload your logo and specify your brand colours. What comes back is a block of HTML code that you then upload to a hosting provider such as Netlify, Vercel, GitHub Pages, or Cloudflare Pages, which gives you a live site with a custom domain. Each of those providers has straightforward tutorials to walk you through it.
The results can be functional, but the limitations are real. AI builders tend to struggle with logos, rely on stock imagery or none at all, and the sites often have a sameness to them that makes it hard to stand out. Beyond the look, you also take on the ongoing responsibility of managing the hosting, keeping the site updated, and handling anything that breaks, without a platform or support team behind you.
Pros: low cost, fast to get something live, no monthly platform fee
Cons: generic output, no built-in CMS (Ability to add, edit, and update content on your site without touching any code), limited imagery, you own all the technical maintenance, no easy way to update content without editing code
Option 2: Build it yourself
For many advisers breaking away, building your own website is the most practical middle ground. You save on agency fees, you stay in control, and with the right platform it does not need to take over your life. That said, be honest with yourself about how much time you are willing to put in before you start. Some people pick these tools up quickly; others find them genuinely frustrating. The best way to find out is to make a free account and spend an hour exploring before you commit to anything. It might click immediately, or it might feel like learning a new card game after a few too many ciders. Only one way to know.
Here is what the main options will cost you at entry level:
Platform | Entry plan | Price (billed annually) | Custom domain |
|---|---|---|---|
Godaddy | Essentials Bundle | £7.98/mo | Included |
Squarespace | Basic | £12/mo (£16/mo monthly) | Free year one |
Wix | Light | £9/mo | Free year one |
Framer | Basic | Around £8/mo | Free .com year one |
GoDaddy is the fastest route to getting something live. Its AI builder can generate a working site from a short description in minutes, and marketing tools, appointment scheduling, and email marketing are all bundled into every plan with no extra integrations needed. If you genuinely just need a basic digital presence and nothing more, the price point and simplicity make it easy to justify.
The problem is where it ends up. The design system is rigid, the SEO tools are shallow, and there is a lock-in risk that most people only discover when they have already outgrown the platform. GoDaddy's code is proprietary, which means you cannot export your site and migrate it somewhere better. If you want to move, you are starting from scratch.
Pros: fastest to launch, everything bundled in one plan, very beginner-friendly
Cons: very limited design flexibility, weak SEO, no exit route if you outgrow it
Squarespace is the easiest starting point if you want a professional-looking site without bringing in a developer. The templates are well-made, the editor is intuitive, and mobile is handled automatically, which matters given how many prospective clients will find you on their phone. For a sole adviser or small firm that wants something clean and credible without a large upfront investment, it does the job well.
Where it starts to show its limits is when you want more. Customising beyond the template structure gets frustrating, and while the SEO settings are adequate, they are not deep enough to support a serious content strategy over time. It is a good starting point, but worth knowing there is a ceiling.
Pros: polished templates, easy to launch, no technical knowledge needed
Cons: limited flexibility, shallow SEO tools
Wix gives you more design control than most builders at this price point. The drag-and-drop editor lets you place elements freely, which appeals to anyone who has a clear picture of how they want things to look. An AI site generator means you can get something workable live quickly, and a solid app marketplace covers most of the functionality a financial advice firm would need, including booking tools, live chat, and contact forms.
The trade-off is consistency. That creative freedom means sites can look cluttered if the design is not managed carefully. In financial services, where trust is built or lost in seconds, a messy layout works against you. Mobile optimisation can also be fiddly. None of this is a dealbreaker, but it is worth knowing going in.
Pros: flexible layout, AI site generation, good app integrations
Cons: easy to end up with an inconsistent design, SEO limited at scale
Framer is in a different league when it comes to design quality and site performance. It produces fast, well-optimised sites with genuinely strong SEO credentials, and for full transparency, it is the platform the Financial Solutions website is built on. The CMS means you can manage blogs and resource pages yourself once the site is set up, without needing a developer every time you want to update something.
The honest caveat is that Framer is not beginner-friendly. If you have no prior experience with design tools, the learning curve is steep and the initial setup takes real time. The results are often worth it, but this is a platform that rewards patience over speed.
Pros: excellent performance and SEO, high design quality, strong CMS
Cons: steeper learning curve, may need a developer to get the best from it
So which one should you choose?
If you are building alone and need to be live relatively quickly, Wix is the most honest recommendation. It gives you meaningful design control without needing design expertise, the AI tools lower the barrier to getting started, and unlike GoDaddy, you are not locked into a system with no exit.
Squarespace is a solid alternative if you want something faster and are comfortable with a more constrained canvas. GoDaddy is fine if all you need is a placeholder while you focus on everything else that comes with starting a firm, but go in knowing it is likely a short-term solution.
Framer produces the best output of the four. If you are prepared to invest time in learning it, or you are working with a designer, it is genuinely worth the effort. If you need to be live by next month and you are going it alone, it is probably not the right starting point.
Option 3: Let someone else build it
Not every adviser wants to spend their time building and managing a website, and that is completely reasonable. Your time is one of your most valuable assets right now, and it is worth asking honestly whether the cost of outsourcing is worth more than the hours you would spend doing it yourself.
There are also regulatory considerations specific to financial services that a general freelancer might not be across. If you would rather hand it to people who already understand the compliance landscape, there are agencies that specialise in exactly this:
We have no affiliations with any of them. That said, we did host a recent webinar on making a great digital first impression with Phil Bray, MD of Yardstick, and it is well worth a watch if you are thinking seriously about your online presence.
Beyond specialist agencies, you can also look at freelancers or general web design agencies. Ask your network for recommendations, use AI search tools to narrow down your options, and look for someone who has worked with professional services firms before. A good brief and a clear budget will take you a long way.
